ToAD 2018 – Waukesha
I’m a climber, not a sprinter. I prefer road races over crits. And I rode 105 miles yesterday for training – most of these guys just raced a 90-minute crit.
I wasn’t expecting much from this race, but I was going to give it my best shot.
5 minutes in and I’m sitting on the back. My legs are tired, I can’t sprint, and I can feel the chocolate cake in my stomach from yesterday’s graduation party weighing me down. I try to sprint out of the corners but I still get gapped. I stand up and sprint harder, but I still get passed by guys coming out of every corner.
Just sit in, just relax I tell myself. We’re only 10 minutes in, and have 80 to go. The ‘race’ isn’t happening right now. At least I hope it’s not.
By the time I got to the front – passing 140 guys after starting on the back row is no easy task – we were 15 minutes in and there was a break off the front. 3 guys; three of the strongest guys in the race, on some of the biggest teams in the race. They already have 20 seconds, and are nearly out of sight.
Sh*t.
After a few minutes of calming myself down, and thinking through my tactics for the rest of the race, I decided it was time to follow some attacks.
“$50 prime! $50 prime! $50 PRIME!”
I’m gonna for it! I thought to myself – Immediate regret. I attacked hard going into Turn 2. I went deep for 20 seconds, looked over my shoulder, and saw the entire field sitting on my wheel. Fantastic.
As I drifted back through the field, another break went up the road. By this point, I had lost track of when/where/and how many breaks there were up the road; I decided to sit back, relax, and wait for my opportunity later in the race.
30 minutes to go and the gap to the break is coming down. There are still 3 riders up the road, but the teams have re-shuffled – two riders from the original break got dropped, but another two bridged up from the field. At 15 laps to go, I suddenly realize that I’m too far back. I have been distracted, day-dreaming, and not paying attention to what is happening up the road – why was I day-dreaming in the middle of a ToAD crit? Your guess is as good as mine.
11 laps to go and I’ve made it to the front. Constant attacks and a desperate chase have left the field gasping for air, and the 90 or so riders left are strung out single-file. This is my chance. If I’m going to go, I have to go. NOW!
I attack up the left side of the road, squeezing into a dangerously small gap along the barriers and nearly crashing into the rider in front of me – oh how I have missed the sketchiness of pro-level crits…
Now I am all-in. No looking back, no waiting for the field sprint, no pacing or drinking or gels. Just GO. I bridge up to two of the breakaway riders in less than a lap. I pull as hard as I can up the finishing straight. 4 laps to go, and I start to believe. We’re dangling in front of the field – it’s only a couple of seconds, but the fact that there’s a gap is all that matters. I’m feeling good and driving everything I have into the pedals.
2 laps to go and the field is chasing. I take another pull up the finishing straight and the crowd is going crazy. Flashbulbs light up the road, the fans are screaming and pounding on the boards, and I hear the announcer yelling my name over the loudspeaker – ToAD is everything I love about crits.
1.5 laps to go and we’re flying down the backstretch. My heart rate is maxed out, and then my heart breaks – a rider from the field comes flying past us. I take a quick look back, and there’s the field, charging onto my wheel. And just like that, it’s over.
1 lap to go, and I coast back through the field. I gave it everything I had, but I came up short. There is nothing to be ashamed of; I am proud of my effort, and I could not have done anything more. On to the next one.
Ride Stats:
Distance: 41.9 miles
Time: 1:30:00 (The most perfectly-timed race I’ve ever done)
Average Speed: 27.9 mph
Average HR: 168 bpm
Max HR: 183 bpm
Average Power: 258 W
Normalized Power: 282 W
Max Power: 972 W
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/1660504438/overview
Next: ToAD – West Bend